Chinese authorities destroyed 42 million pieces of pirated digital videodiscs, compact discs, computer software and illegal publications in the government’s latest campaign to curtail rampant theft of intellectual property, state media reported. The Saturday campaign follows a pair of complaints filed Tuesday by the U.S. against Beijing in the World Trade Organization over product piracy and market access. China on Wednesday warned that the U.S. complaints against Beijing in the WTO could damage commercial relations between the two countries.
A previously unknown Palestinian group said Sunday it had killed a British journalist kidnapped over a month ago by gunmen in Gaza City, but the claim could not be confirmed. In a statement, “The brigades of Tawheed and Jihad” said it killed BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, 42, to support demands for the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. However, the BBC and the Palestinian government both said there was no evidence to back up the claim.
Russia began construction of its first floating nuclear power plant Sunday, and plans to build at least six more despite long-standing environmental concerns that they are vulnerable to accidents at sea, Russian news agencies reported. Russia justifies the program as a way of bringing power to some of the country’s most remote areas, also saying some of the plants could be sold to other nations. The head of Russia’s atomic energy agency said the plants will be safe.
A Southern California pesticide company has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging that one of the company’s products caused agricultural workers in Nicaragua to become sterile, plaintiffs’ attorneys announced Sunday. Amvac Chemical Corp. has agreed to pay a total of $300,000 to 13 Nicaraguan field workers who claimed they were sterilized while exposed to a pesticide called DBCP on banana plantations nearly three decades ago. Dow Chemical Co. and Dole Fruit Co. remain as defendants in the case.
From Herald news services
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